Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for controlling image formation on a printing form carrier for a printing press, wherein image signals for producing a printing form are taken from a storage register or memory of a computer and fed to an imaging or image-forming device.
It is state of the art to combine images, text and graphics, in the form of digital data, into a full-page layout by means of a computer and a program. The full page layout is accordingly present in the form of a so-called PostScript data file in a storage register or memory of the computer. Print control elements, such as print control strips or bars with zonally arranged control fields, register marks and register crosses, can also be included in the PostScript data file. The print control elements are standardized and can be used only in printing presses wherein the print control elements are usable. By means of a raster image processor, the data of the PostScript file are converted into so-called bit map data. The bit map data are fed to an imaging device for forming an image of a printing form, a respective printing form being produced for each one of the process colors which are used.
It has been found to be disadvantageous that once a PostScript data file has been prepared, the type of printing presses which can be used is fixed because of the print control elements which are provided. Yet, precisely in printing plants, which employ printing presses, for example, from various manufacturers which operate with print control elements of different standards, it would be desirable to perform any arbitrary job on any arbitrary printing press, subject to the condition, of course, that the printing press be suitable with respect to quality for the job.
To overcome this disadvantage, it would have to be possible to integrate all the print control elements which might be suitable for a printing plant in every layout to be printed. In such a case, the unneeded print control elements would unnecessarily take up space on the printed product, this space being then no longer available for the otherwise further usable subject.